Riri Williams and Miles Morales team up in this Ironheart #6 exclusive
Riri “Ironheart” Williams is carving out a niche for herself as a superhero specializing in missing person cases. The first arc of the Ironheart ongoing had Riri searching for an old friend from high school who had disappeared, and now she’s embarking on a solo mission to find her Champions teammate, Miles “Spider-Man” Morales. That opening storyline reinforced Riri’s connection to her hometown of Chicago, putting Riri in the middle of a local political scheme tied to a larger organization trying to add Riri to its ranks. It also gave Riri a new supporting cast and status quo, putting her in charge of an after-school safe space for the youth she rescues.
As the writer of the current Marvel Team-Up revival, Eve Ewing is exploring how younger heroes in the Marvel Universe interact with each other and their adult colleagues. This preview of next week’s Ironheart #6 establishes that Riri and Miles are in a much more dire situation than the body-swap shenanigans Kamala Khan and Peter Parker are dealing with in MTU. Ewing sets high stakes early by starting the story in media res, and the art by Kevin Libranda and colorist Matt Milla creates a strong sense of urgency before lightening the mood for the flashback set-up.
Libranda returns to Ironheart after drawing the majority of the first issue and then handing off art duties to artists Geoffo and Luciano Vecchio, who did fantastic work imbuing Riri’s story with dynamic energy and rich personality. Those qualities still hold true with Libranda, whose animated style enriches both action and expression. The opening two pages of this excerpt takes readers on an intense journey in rapid time, opening with a serene panel of snow-covered trees before jumping to Riri’s panic and revealing the burning wreckage around her and Miles. Milla’s coloring intensifies those shifts by alternating warm and cool palettes, building to a dramatic splash page that puts readers right in Riri’s frightened mindset.
